Integrated circuits (ICs) and other electronic devices may produce excessive heat during operation. Various known types of cooling modules are designed to control the temperature of an electronic device by dissipating heat from the device to the environment via a heat sink.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,908,695, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a heat conducting member placed in a space between a semiconductor chip which generates heat and a heat transfer block which is cooled by a coolant. The heat conducting member conducts heat from the semiconductor chip to the heat transfer block. The heat conducting member has a slanted surface which is inclined with respect to a surface to be cooled of the corresponding semiconductor chip.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,639,829, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a device that thermally couples a heat dissipating integrated circuit chip to the heat sink in a thermal conduction module for effective cooling of the chip by minimizing the thermal resistance path from the chip to the sink. The device is a combination of a heat conducting flat based, truncated solid conical disc which is spring loaded on the back of the chip and a heat conductive hat member having an opening with a continuous tapered wall to conformally fit over the truncated conical disc. The gap between the disc and the hat is packed with a thin layer of a high thermal conductivity grease to provide a low interfacial thermal resistance and mechanical flexibility between the disc and the hat.